Dr. Mohammed H. S.

Zangana

Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of

Engineering, Koya University

Flow Measuring

An essential part of any gas production operation is the accurate

determination of volumetric flow rates.

ORIFICE METERING

The orifice meter is the most widely used because of its simplicity,
ruggedness, and accuracy.

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 Flow Measuring

An orifice metering system consists of means for measuring the

pressure drop caused by a change in velocity of the gas as it passes
through a restriction placed in the pipe.

Flow Measuring
Flow rate can be determined from:

(1)

Where,

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 Flow Measuring
Equation (1) may be modified by specifying the pressure and
temperature conditions at which the flow rate is measured:

(2)

Where,

Flow Measuring

Further modification is usually made by combining

terms, assuming to obtain:

(3)

(4)

The term C' is known as the orifice constant

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 Flow Measuring
Orifice Constants
The values of the constants in Equation (4 ) depend on the points
between which the differential pressure hw is measured.
Two standards are provided in gas measurement- flange taps
and pipe taps.
Flange Taps: the flange or orifice holder is so tapped that the
center of the upstream and downstream taps is 1 in. from the
respective orifice-plate surfaces.

Flow Measuring
Orifice Constants

Pipe Taps: For standard pipe taps, the upstream tap is located 2-
1/2 pipe diameters upstream and 8 pipe diameters downstream.

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 Flow Measuring
Orifice Constants

Basic Orifice Factor Fb: The Fb factor, is a function of the

experimental Constant Ko, which means that it depends on
the location of the differential taps and the internal pipe
diameter in addition to the orifice diameter.

(5)

C’ is mainly depends on this factor .

Flow Measuring

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Expansion Factor Y. The Y factor accounts for the change in gas

density as the pressure changes across the orifice. In as much as the
differential involved is usually small, this correction is small and often
ignored.

Super compressibility Factor Fpv : The variation from the ideal-gas laws
of an actual gas is corrected by the Fpv factor. It may be estimated from
the equation Fpv = (1/Z)^0.5 where Z is equal to the compressibility
factor obtained from standard correlations.

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Flow Measuring

Manometer Factor Fm: The Fm factor is used only with mercury-type

meters to correct for the slight error in measurement caused by having
different heads of gas above the two legs of the manometer. For all
practical purposes it is insignificant.

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Thank You

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